There's been one major change since the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting: Record profits for gun manufacturers.

For America's gun makers, the slaughter of school children at the Sandy Hook Elementary School turned out to be very good for the bottom line.

In the three years since the massacre in Newtown, Conn., the country's biggest gun manufacturers have made loads of money following a string of mass shootings — proof that as the body count rises, so do sales and profits.

The four biggest gun makers have cleared more than $632 million in profits since one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history, a Daily News examination has found.

This was especially true in 2013, the year immediately after the massacre of 20 children and six adults in Newtown on Dec. 14, 2012.

That year, records show that profits at Sturm Ruger, based just 22 miles from Newtown in Southport, Conn., rose from $70.6 million to $111.7 million. Profits at Smith & Wesson, in nearby Springfield, Mass., jumped from $16.1 million to $78.7 million.

The Freedom Group, makers of Remington rifles and Bushmaster assault rifles — a weapon used at Sandy Hook — pulled down $57.7 million in profits in 2013 — nearly 10 times the $5.9 million they made the prior year.

Vista Group, makers of hunting rifles, ammunition and gun accessories, was initially part of a holding corporation called ATK and was spun off in 2015. Its profits rose from $10 million to $64 million in the year after Sandy Hook.

This disturbing pattern is familiar — gun sales often spike after a high profile mass shooting and the resultant clamor for gun control that follows.

Sturm-Ruger, Smith & Wesson and Vista have all tallied steady profits every year post-Sandy Hook. Only Freedom, which saw a big drop in hunting rifle sales in 2014, wound up with a loss.

Smith & Wesson CEO James Debney, whose total compensation is $1.9 million, said that the Newtown tragedy gave his company's bottom line a boost.

(Boston Globe/Boston Globe via Getty Images)

Since the Newtown nightmare, all U.S. firearms makers have been very busy, manufacturing 10.8 million pistols, revolvers, rifles and shotguns in 2013 — a 26% increase over the 8.5 million they made in 2012.

And the number of background checks for gun purchases also went way up — jumping from 13.7 million to 14.7 million the year after Sandy Hook.

The estimated number of guns in America has reached the staggering figure of between 270 million to 300 million — about one per person.

The CEOs of some of these companies have even made clear that Sandy Hook resulted in a boost to their bottom line.

A police officer picks up a weapon from the scene of the investigation around the area of the SUV in which San Bernardino shooting suspects Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik were killed in a gun battle with cops.

(MIKE BLAKE/REUTERS)

Smith & Wesson CEO P. James Debney, whose total compensation is $1.9 million, said, "The tragedy in Newtown and the legislative landscape" resulted in sales that were "significantly up," according to transcripts of a 2013 Roth Capital Partners conference with investors obtained by The Intercept.

Debney added, “Fear and uncertainly that there might be increased gun control ... drove many new people to buy firearms for the first time."

Another transcript quotes Sturm Ruger's Michael Fifer, whose total compensation is $1.9 million as well, telling investors in 2013: “If you look back at historical patterns back in late '08, early '09, you saw a huge spike in accessory sales, which then tapered off. And then we saw it again with the really tragic events at Sandy Hook that started again as soon as the politicians started talking about restricting legal gun use."

“For gun makers there is not enough money that can be earned that we would trade for a life of an innocent person,” said Po Murray, chairwoman of the Newtown Action Alliance, a gun-control advocacy group formed after the tragedy.

The year after Sandy Hook, Vista outdoor's profits rose $10 million to $64 million. The company is led by Mark DeYoung, who receives total compensation of $13.2 million.

Murray and others say the post-shooting bump for gun sales and profits is a repulsive trend based on gun owners’ fears that the government will come and take away their guns.

“The fear is unnecessary,” she said. “We live in a country where we have nearly 300 million guns, which is like one for every person. We should be the safest place in the world — but clearly we're not."

This post-atrocity spike is evident in the recent stock histories of Sturm Ruger and Smith & Wesson, the two publicly-traded firearms makers that account for a third of all handgun sales in the U.S.

Both Sandy Hook and the recent terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists in Paris and San Bernardino drove up the price for both, records show.

Three days after Sandy Hook, Sturm-Ruger’s stock closed at $43.59. Then came President Obama’s call for a renewal of an assault weapons ban and Sturm-Ruger’s stock began to rise.

Sturm Ruger & Co. President and CEO, Mike Fifer"Gun CEOs"

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By March 4, 2013, it hit a high of $56.45. It fell back slightly to $48.18 by April 14, 2013, but took off again after the U.S. Senate took up an amendment to expand background checks that April 17.

The amendment failed, but by Jan. 6, 2014, Sturm Ruger’s stock had risen to $80.55. It dropped back to $48.95 by Nov. 9, 2015.

Four days later came the Nov. 13 attack in Paris, followed by the Dec. 2 San Bernardino massacre. Instantly Sturm-Ruger’s stock shot back up, closing on Friday at $59.29.

The same track record occurred with Smith & Wesson. After Sandy Hook and the campaign for gun control that followed, the company’s stock doubled from $8.10 to $16.88 by June 1, 2014.

It dropped back to $9.30 by Oct. 5, 2014, then rose steadily. It was at $17.14 Nov. 9, just before the Paris and San Bernardino attacks. It closed at $23.45 on Friday.

Planned Parenthood shooter Robert Dear used what authorities described as a "long gun" to kill three and injure nine.

(STRINGER/REUTERS)

Last week, the Village Voice quoted local gun merchants saying inquiries by frightened New Yorkers about obtaining pistol licenses jumped after the Paris and San Bernardino attacks.

In its 2014 annual report, Smith & Wesson noted, “In late calendar 2012 and early calendar 2013, orders again increased rapidly in what appears to be a response to fears of renewed legislative activity surrounding restrictions on the sale or makeup of firearms.”

In a 2014 annual report, Sturm-Ruger noted “strong demand in 2013" due in part to the "current political environment that favorably impacted the entire firearms industry.”

In the days after the deadly Paris and San Bernardino attacks, gun manufacturers' stocks jumped.

(Thierry Chesnot/Getty Images)

Freedom Group, which is a named defendant in a lawsuit filed by the families of Sandy Hook victims, noted in its 2014 report that “future incidents of violence by individuals involving firearms could increase pressure to adopt some or all of the proposed regulations.”

Translated, that means gun control, and as the company noted, “Any such development might have a material adverse effect on our business.”

Freedom Group recently named a new CEO, James “Marco” Marcotuli. His compensation was unavailable because the company is private. (Vista’s CEO Mark W. DeYoung receives total compensation of $13.2 million.)

“The No. 1 driver is fear,” said Brian Ruttenbur, an analyst at BB&T Capital Markets. “You may see little pockets of increase after a mass shooting, but the big spike happens after politicians open their mouths.”

After Obama talked of renewing an assault weapons ban, “You had the beginnings of a massive surge nationwide."

“I'm sitting in my ivory tower just laughing at politicians and President Obama and the Democrats that want to ban guns,” Ruttenbur said. “They have been the best friends of gun makers. That's where I find that it's absolutely ironic.”

Gun control advocates acknowledge that their cause inspires gun sales, but they note also that since Sandy Hook, there have been an estimated 90,000 firearm deaths in America.

The last official figures available from the federal Centers for Disease Control put the figure at 33,636 firearms deaths in 2013 — including some 11,208 homicides and 21,175 suicides. That figure has remained steady in the last few years, rising by a fraction each year.